


Only a Look in the Eyes

by ivyspinners



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Gen, Gen Mini-Fic Exchange, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2015-07-27
Packaged: 2018-04-11 12:29:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4435532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivyspinners/pseuds/ivyspinners
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mavis Vermillion looked thirteen years old. Spoilers for Fairy Tail Zero.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Only a Look in the Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> For multi-genfic [Narrative Challenge Bingo](http://multi-genfic.livejournal.com/11981.html). Card 7, _anaphora_

Mavis Vermillion looked thirteen years old; for once, exactly her age. Her eyes, old and wise and unnerving, were shut. Her chest rose and fell, rose and fell, as regular as clockwork. She did not wake when Yuriy leaned over her, pleading, overwhelmed with guilt that he'd brought her to this state. She did not wake when, unseen, the illusion that was Zeira touched her cheeks. She did not stir, much less wake, when the healer-mage leaned over her and discovered the truth.

She would never look her age again. She would never _age_ again.

*

Mavis Vermillion looked thirteen years old; she was twenty-one. She was also bleeding profusely from a gash on her arm, and cursing under her breath.

She needed another bandage; the one currently sheathing her wound was soaked. The flow of blood hadn't lessened at all, despite Warrod's best efforts to dress it.

Mavis wished she were surprised. But she'd wondered for years how the healer could have known, just from several days' of observation, that she would never grow older. Here was her answer. Despite the body's resilience, until she'd received magical intervention, her cells had not divided. Mavis had not _healed_.

Looked like she might live forever, or she might die anyway.

*

Mavis Vermillion looked thirteen years old; she was twenty-four. She was also impossible to stare at long enough to discern a thing.

She glowed like a star a billion times older, power flicking under her skin and _pushing_. She thought she might burst with heat, with sheer outward force. Her bones creaked under the weight of magic, which did not weigh anything at all. The light was so strong it turned everything around her translucent, outlines so faint they seemed imaginary - as though Mavis were the only real thing in the world.

"Every great power," Mavis whispered, "has a price." Her voice was soft, and carried for hundred of meters even so.

She had paid when she was thirteen, without knowing. Mavis did not regret it.

Her fingers seemed to fade away. She dared not look at them.

Power burst out of her skin like an avalance, turning the world white. As crystals encased her fingertips, then grew, and grew, and _grew_ , Mavis wondered what it would demand this time.

*

Mavis Vermillion looked thirteen years old; she was well over one hundred.

She stayed hidden as Fairy Tail disbanded, its members still vibrating with hurt and confusion. She stayed hidden when some started searching for her, hoping, perhaps, for respite. She stayed hidden until, at last, Makarov took heavy steps to the cellar, where her body lay concealed.

"I hope you're certain, Third Master," she murmured, watching him carefully. "You're too old to fight this alone. And a guild is only as strong as it's heart." His, Fairy Tail's too, was breaking.

Makarov's shoulders shook. Mavis wasn't sure if he cried, or if he laughed. He looked, suddenly, very small.

"They're too young to fight by my side," Makarov said.

"And me?" Mavis said. He could not, of course, have hidden the truth from her anyway. That was also not the point.

Makarov turned, and there were tear tracks down his face. But he smiled. "Ah, but you're not young at all, First Master. You've never looked young to me."

fin.


End file.
